When the first Hot Wheels Unleashed arrived two years ago, I felt it was a good racer that had a few limiting factors. Namely the randomness of gaining new vehicles and the discoverability of created tracks and liveries. Updates to that game somewhat improved both, and now there’s the second game. Hot Wheels Unleashed 2: Turbocharged has improved greatly on one of those things, but not really the other. I guess Milestone felt it was improved enough, but see what I think could have been added.
Before getting there, there’s been plenty of other improvements from that first game. Driving around on the tracks is much the same as last time, with a boost meter that passively fills but can be charged faster by drifting. Adding to that moveset is the dash and jump. The jump has meant that new things are introduced to the track design to keep them fun, such as jumping over gaps and obstacles. But the jump also changes the track design in another way.
With the first game, some tracks seemed very lax with their checkpoints. As such, even without a jump, it meant there were some very broken shortcuts that could be used to skip entire sections of track if you knew how to pull them off. And in the Time Attacks it felt you needed to learn them to even hit some of the base targets in the City Rumble campaign mode. Now, tracks have plenty of checkpoints, even on loops and other easily skippable sections, meaning such shortcuts are no longer a thing.
And speaking of the campaign mode, this game has a similar set up. Creature Rampage sees a map with various events on it that take you towards a boss. Unlike the first, there’s cutscenes telling a story. Shown in a comic book style, it depicts two hot shot racers, a professor, and his robotic assistant working together to fix a mistake the professor made. The escaped creatures the campaign is named after.
There’s nothing deep or epic about the story, with most scenes either being a boss encounter or a singular joke. But there’s a charm to them that would make it feel like something was missing – like with the first game – were they not here. The bosses are also more involved this time rather than just being a regular race with something extra to avoid. There’s a bit more skill to them, with the creature having a health bar and a fury bar.
The battle is over should the fury bar reach critical, but it is reset upon taking one of a bosses lives. That fury bar builds quite fast, meaning hitting each of the targets around the track is critical to success. If fast enough, accidentally skipping one isn’t the end of the world, but it will be a close call. Each boss will have a lot of lives, so you’ll be driving about two laps of a track to defeat one. These are also the hardest tracks of each respective environment, so are a true test of skill to face.
As for the other events of the campaign, races and Time Attacks are back. Said time trials are easier this time around, which likely has something to do with the fact two rage inducing modes just wouldn’t be fun. Drift Master sets you up with a target score to complete in a single lap by drifting for points. The more you drift, the higher the points multiplier becomes. But accidentally bash into the sides of the track or into anything else, and that multiplier resets.
It’s not as bad when just gunning for the base target, but the Unleashed targets can prove tricky, especially with the randomness of special track elements such as the swinging rock. The other two modes are easier. Elimination is exactly as it sounds, being a race for survival against the clock. Those at the back get taken out until only one remains.
Waypoints is similar to Time Attack, but utilising the environments with minimal track pieces being present. As such, these checkpoints can be spread out more, seeing you zip from one end of the environment to the other. The arrow and distance to the checkpoint are helpful for when you can’t see it, so you never feel lost. It does make a nice change from mostly racing on the track pieces, what with having to navigate around things you mostly just see blitz by in other events. Make me wish there were more of them.
There are five environments that feature these events, with what feels a lot more detail than those of the first game. The arcade is full of machines across a multi-floor complex. The backyard is an obvious one, taking you around the backyard of a house, but also inside of that house. The gas station features a diner as its interior space. The dinosaur museum features plenty of dino bones in exhibits. And my favourite is the mini golf course, themed around the old west.
All of them are great, being a varied bunch. Also varied are the vehicles you’ll be driving. Nearly everything from the first game is here, with a lot more on top. New vehicle types such as bikes and ATVs means there aren’t just regular cars (or at least as regular as these designs are) to collect. And collecting them is easy enough. The shop will feature a small number of them, rotating them out every 45 minutes of playtime. That rotation can be forced for a small fee, allowing you collect unique vehicles at a faster rate than the previous game.
That is the greatly improved part I mentioned back at the start of this review. And now, the not so improved. Discoverability. As I say, updates to the first game improved how it was from when that game first launched, but it seems nothing has been done to improve on that for the second. Liveries and tracks can now be liked, with there being most liked section for monthly, weekly, and all-time. The game will also give you some recommended ones. You can also favourite tracks and liveries for easy access. That all seems great, but there’s two things I feel should have been added, with this new game being the perfect opportunity to do so.
Though you can view the profile of a creator, you can’t see all their creations, or even given them a follow. You can only see how many creations they’ve made along with a number of other stats. Though you can see the tracks and liveries you’ve made within their respective creative sections, no such option exists in the place you access them. With cross-platform play being a thing, there certainly isn’t going to be a shortage of creative things to look at and try out. And in the grand picture, those two things I mentioned aren’t a must have. They’d just be nicer.
As a last thing, vehicles now come in classes. These classes give advantages in certain areas. Heavy-duty vehicles, for instance, might be slow, are less likely to be bashed aside, even ignoring certain ground-based traps. Alongside those classes are upgrades. Rather than the rarity being upgraded, there’s three tiers of upgrades for each vehicle, with each having a set of skills that can be applied. Those skills are one of three types. Handling, boost, or obstacles. The first two of those have an advantage to activating them, but also come with a disadvantage. As for the obstacle ones, these allow you ignore a set of traps each, which makes them perfect for Time Attacking.
Hot Wheels Unleashed 2: Turbocharged is a vast improvement over the first. New mechanics that change the track design in more interesting ways, and a much improved campaign with new modes keep things feeling fresh. Though discoverability might not be where I’d want it at, there’s still enough for casual browsing. Besides, both the campaign and regular online will keep you busy for quite a while anyway. As will collecting all those Hot Wheels vehicles. This gets a great recommendation from me, so pick it up if you want some arcade racing action.
Images Taken From:
Hot Wheels Unleashed 2: Turbocharged | Xbox Series S
